June: 8 ounces = 1 cup of water, or something with similar density (such as milk). Flour (and most other ingredients) have a different mass:volume ratio. You can find a pretty comprehensive conversion chart at King Arthur Flour’s website. Generally speaking, the recipes on this site assume that 1 cup of all-purpose flour equals 4.5 ounces. Hope that helps!

Good morning, Beth! A couple of questions re: The Autolyse Method, if I may. I noted that you are using the double rise method even though you use instant yeast. I was given to understand that one should omit the first rise with instant yeast. While I will certainly follow the recipe exactly as you wrote it, I wonder what your feelings/experiences are in this regard?

Also, when using a spritzer bottle in lieu of ice cubes for the steam, do I mist the dough itself or just kind of spritz the interior of my oven?

I’m having a ball reading through your site and I thank you for your time and expertise in getting us newbies up and baking!

Helen: So glad you’re enjoying the site! And yes, I definitely use a double rise with an autolyse. Generally, the longer a bread takes to rise, the better the flavor, texture, and keeping ability. So, as long as the dough doesn’t overproof, rise away!

As for the oven-spritzing, I just open the door a little, spray the heck out of whatever’s in the way (walls, floor, dough, etc.), and shut the door again as quickly as possible to prevent too much heat loss. I’m sure one can make a study over whether the spraying just the dough or just the walls would result in a preferable loaf, but I’ve never really bothered. The blitzkrieg method seems to work well for me, and I feel it’s more important to keep the heat in.

Darren: Thanks so much for reading, and for the comment! My suggestion is to seek out a brownie recipe with an absolutely senseless amount of sugar and butter. The sugar will make the thick, crunchy top, and the butter will give that fudgy, dense base you’re looking for. I believe the proportions were approximately 1 part chocolate, 2 parts butter, and 4 parts sugar. I do remember spreading a dark ganache on top, which does boost the chocolate flavor if you think you’d like that. Best of luck, and I hope that helps!

Hi Beth,
I just found your website/blog and am thoroughly enjoying the info you provide. I have been trying to make a good loaf of bread for some time and while the attempts have been getting better with the last one being acceptable I am still pursuing a bread with more depth of flavour and a bit lighter in its texture. I use a kitchenaid for mixing and am now about to try the Autolyse method to see if that will help. I also found to my dismay that 20minutes of kneading in a KA is way too much. Now I know about 8 minutes and the window pane method gives the best result. Because I am in Australia and we are metric in measurements and because I weigh all ingredients including liquids I have to convert all your measurements to grams. This slows my processing a bit but at least once it is done I have the converted recipe. Thank you for a great site I am hoping to get a better loaf with the autolyse and then for the Biga loaf.
Regards Leslie

I can tell you what happens when you can’t wait to slice a freshly baked vollkornbrot – it is very moist or mushy inside,almost like it wasn’t baked long enough! So please, be patient, let it rest, but not in a plastic bag!!! And when you finally slice it, slice it thin, very thin, less than 1/4 inch!!!

My name is Bendik, from Norway. I was just wondering if it is okay with you that I use one of your photos in a facebook-event? The photo I’m referring to is the one of the pumpernickel bread on this page: http://www.abreadaday.com/?p=265. The bread looks delicious! 🙂 Is it okay with you if I choose to use this photo?

I’m so excited to find your blog. I’m not able to bake everyday because of other responsibilities, but I’m sure going to try to use a couple if your recipes each week. Thanks for all the info and time you’ve put into this. I can’t wait to dig in.

Am reading through your blog as if it were a book, and throughly enjoying the read. Have only recently started out on making my own bread (with surprisingly good results). Just reached your “beer bread” week. Wondered if you’d tried using a good quality dark beer instead of water in a standard or wholemeal loaf?

Wallace: So glad you’re enjoying the site! I haven’t tried using beer instead of water in any other bread recipe, but that sounds like a fun experiment to try. Give a shot, and let us know how it works out!

Loved you history on the flour tortilla. Of all the histories I read your makes the best sence. I live in a border town. Flour tortillas long with their conutor parts corn tortillas are a staple. Just a note, many persons around this area voice that flour tortillas have there orgin in the Jewish people that settled this area. I have my doughts about this. There are few if any persons of Jewish desent in this area’s
documented history. Great recipe, my family use a bit more shortening, about 1/3c. We also use vegetable shortening. We cook them on a non-stick grill on the stove top at a low temperture.

trying to make matzo bread to celebrate Passover/Easter with our local church; as we are endeavoring to celebrate communing with more understanding of the history and connection with the Passover meal, but how do I get the brown/burnt stripes that the professionally made bread has?

Stephen: Those brown marks are a result of the industrial baking process. Considering yours is homemade, I think it’s better if it doesn’t look just like the professional version. But if you really insist on having those marks, you can either grill the bread, or cook it on an extremely hot griddle. Use the hottest heat you can, and your bread will char in spots just like the stuff in the box. Happy Baking!

Just found your site on the weekend. I’d stopped making bread after several not so great results. Decided to take another look for recipes and techniques and landed here. Your site is the best I’ve come across. I’ve so enjoyed reading through your blog and have so many recipes I now want to try. So far I’ve made the Prosciutto Bread, G’Bread and I now have Plain Ol’ Bread in the oven. The first two turned out amazing and the house smells pretty good right now.
Thank you, I’ve learned so much about techniques, methods, per-ferment and baking in general. It’s very different to what I’ve done in the past but I’m getting way better results. Even bought a baking stone today! I’ll be spending the next couple of weeks reading through the blog and recipes and trying the recipes far beyond that.

Just want to let you know that I tried your pan de sal recipe, (I am filipino) and it was gorgeous! It brought me back to my home country 🙂 , my husband (dutch) loved it! I cut it into thirds and made the first batch yesterday, i am baking two batches today :). Thank you for the recipe!

Beth,
LOVE the website. Came across it by accident a few days ago looking for a marble rye recipe. Made it today and it was fabulous. I’m sending a copy of it to a dear friend as we speak. One of the things that drew me to your recipe was your mention of The Breadbaker’s Apprentice – one of the best bread books ever. I will be checking the entire site over time and hope you continue to enspire the baker in all of us with your passion. Thank you!

I have gone to Greenfield when I was younger, now taken my children and granddaughter when visiting family in Detroit. Always bring home the Hobo bread. What a surprise this Christmas, my cousin Kim, gifted me with what else,Hobo bread. Thanks to her brother,Dennis,who was at Greenfield village during the holiday. So now I have a recipe. Also a soup can from my Aunt Janet. Can’t wait to bake some for the Easter holiday. Thanks you.

This recipe has become a family favorite!! My husband (who doesn’t cook) loves to make this recipe. And of course we all love to eat it no matter who made it! Quality beer makes a huge difference. We were very disappointed with the outcome using light beer. I also generally add a tad extra sugar.

I am a dedicated home baker. I noted your blog about retarding bread dough. I want to do this with a dough made with just sourdough starter, no commercial yeast, and I want to retard the dough in bulk for the first fermentation. I have made this bread numerous times and it comes out well with no retarding or with a retarding of the shaped loaves overnight. But I have never tried it with retarding of the bulk fermentation. The formula is “Vermont Sourdough with Increased Whole Grain” from the book Bread by Jeffrey Hamelman; it has 20% fermented flour (levain). Thank you.

This is one of the best breads i’ve made!! the bread is SUPER SOFT!!! wonderful recipe!!! i added butter, italian seasoning and cheese before i rolled it up – i could’ve eaten the whole loaf. i refrigerated it for about 5 hours – which was so wonderful to be able to do! and it looked so pretty! and smelled so wonderful!!! thanks!! ﻿